Current Season

September 30 – October 15, 2016

By Tom Stoppard, Director: Susan Coromel

Performances

Evenings

Thursday–Saturday

7:30 p.m.

Matinees

Oct. 2, 9, & 15 2 p.m.

Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead is the fabulously inventive tale of Hamlet as told from the worm’s-eye view of the bewildered Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, two minor characters in Shakespeare’s play. In Tom Stoppard’s best-known work, this Shakespearean Laurel and Hardy finally get a chance to take the lead role, but do so in a world where echoes of Waiting for Godot resound, where reality and illusion intermix, and where fate leads our two heroes to a tragic but inevitable end.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is produced by special arrangement with Samuel French, Inc.

November 6, 2016

Willamette University Symphony Orchestra

Music Director: Héctor Agüero

Sunday, Nov. 6, 2016, 3 p.m.

Hudson Hall, Mary Stuart Rogers Music Center

Music Inspired by Shakespeare

In a real treat for the senses, this extraordinary program by Professor Héctor Agüero offers a taste of the numerous musical works that Shakespeare’s oeuvre has inspired throughout the centuries. This concert promises an enchantment to the ears, from the joyous to the sublime and everything in between.

November 11 – 19, 2016

Artistic Director: Jessi Fouts

Performances

Evenings

Thursday–Saturday

7:30 p.m.

Matinees

November 13 & 19, 2 p.m.

Shakespeare's writing explored themes of good and evil, loyalty, politics, ambition, guilt, and sin. Throughout them all, he tests our perception: what is real and what is perceived to be real? Through this lens, this year's dance concert delves into these themes, expressing them in a variety of fresh, unique new works by faculty and students.

December 2 – 3, 2016

By Vern Thiessen

A production of NACL Theatre Featuring Tannis Kowalchuk

Director: Mimi McGurl

In this lively, song-filled exploration, Tannis Kowalchuk performs the role of Anne Hathaway, William Shakespeare’s wife. The play begins on the afternoon of Shakespeare’s funeral. Before reading her husband’s will, Anne revisits her life as mother, wife, and woman in 17th century Stratford-upon-Avon. Basing the narrative upon the sparse information known about the Bard’s wife, playwright Vern Thiessen has written a sensitive and humorous text in verse, taking great delight imagining and inventing the robust, earthy, and intelligent character of Anne Hathaway.

February 17 – 25, 2017

By the members of the Women’s Theatre Group from an idea by Elaine Feinstein Guest Director: Elizabeth Rothan

Performances

Evenings

Thursday–Saturday

7:30 p.m.

Matinees Feb. 19 & 25 2 p.m.

Originally devised in 1987 by the Women’s Theatre Group in collaboration with Elaine Feinstein, Lear’s Daughters tells the story of what happened to King Lear’s three girls, Goneril, Regan, and Cordelia, before they made their entrances in Shakespeare’s classic play. The daughters, isolated from their busy parents, find themselves under the care of a nanny who brings sustenance in the form of storytelling. This provocative play explores innocence turned to tragic cynicism. It is a playful but serious modern parable for our time.

March 9 – 12, 2017

By Henry Purcell, Director: Allison Swensen-Mitchell, Co-produced with the Department of Music

Performances

Evenings

Thursday–Saturday

7 p.m.

Matinee

Sunday, March 12

3 p.m.

All is right with the world when Dido, the Queen of Carthage, finally plans to marry her true love, the Trojan hero Aeneas. However, when a sorceress plots Carthage’s demise, it is Dido and Aeneas who find themselves at the center of her master plan. Will their love—and they themselves—survive? This heart-rending romance carries the great tradition of tragic opera into the present day, exploring the eternal struggle between betrayal, power, duty, and love.

April 14 – 29, 2017

By William Shakespeare, Director: Jonathan Cole

Performances

Evenings

Thursday–Saturday

7:30 p.m.

Matinee

April 16, 23 & 29

2 p.m.

This play — Shakespeare’s shortest tragedy — is brutally quick, and is at once elemental and mercurial. It tells the story of a passionate couple, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, whose overwhelming will to power moves them to obliterate all obstacles, transgressing boundaries of fealty, family, and fundamental human kindness. Come experience the meteoric rise and tragic fall of one of theatre literature’s original power couples.